


A False Siren's Song

by TwinVax



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, mermaid au, merman scanlan, pre stream, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2018-11-17 03:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11266668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinVax/pseuds/TwinVax
Summary: Pike takes a break in Daggerbay and meets someone interesting in the small ocean village.





	1. Chapter 1

Daggerbay, despite it's name, had multiple small beaches dotted near the village area of the large central bay, overlooked by small cliffs. Pike followed the man she had met upon disembarking from the Broken Howl to one such beach, where she had been offered a small wooden fishing cabin to live in for the few weeks the crew were stopped there for.

The building was situated between where the rocks of the land transitioned into the soft sands of the beach behind it, unpainted wood showing it's age from the sea breeze and water bombarding it throughout the years it's stood. The front door a dulled blue in contrast to the rest, hidden slightly from the weather from the roof overhang.

Her companion unlocked it as she stopped beside him, sparing her a glance as he took the key out of the lock, “This isn't normally a cottage for visitors to use, ain’t really an inn an all,” he explained, handing the key over, “it's a good cabin for fishin, an I’m sure it'll suit ya jus’ fine for your stay, however long you're here. Sorry bout not havin enough room for most of yer crew ta stay at the inn. Small village, not a lotta visitation.” he pushed the door open after that remark, going inside.

Pike smiled as she followed him in, “That's ok! I just wanted to leave the ship for awhile, so I don’t really mind. Are you sure that I’m not going to get in the way, that anyone else isn't going to come who actually needs it?” she asked, rubbing the key with her thumb worriedly before pocketing it.

The human shrugged, stopping in the middle of what looked to be the sitting room, “Good for fishin, but not used much anyway. Woulda been knocked down if not for people comin when everyplace else was full, so it ain’t much of a bother. You're jus’ fine here, no worrying about that.” he said dismissively.

Reassured, Pike walked into the room and took in her surroundings for the next few weeks until she’d have to return to the boat. The wood walls were plain, decorated with seashells and carved starfish that ranged in their size and craftsmanship. The plush old chairs followed the nautical theme, fabric stitched to resemble underwater plant patterns against the dulled blue stitching. There was a large window seat to the left of the room, overlooking the beginnings of the beach and letting in the sunlight, with a faded old green couch underneath it that looked like it had been fairly used more then the others.

The far wall had an archway, leading to what looked like the kitchen, wooden floor of the living room replaced with crafted solid stone, while to the right of the doorway a hallway lead down to what Pike could see was a closed door, with more following both walls she couldn't quite see without entering the kitchen.

The right wall, where the furniture had been turned to face, held floor to ceiling bookshelves, filled with books. It gave Pike an odd mixture of feeling like she was at sea, while also in a library. It was nice.

The man spread his hands out, indicating the whole house, once she finished her inspection and turned back to him, “Ya already know, but this here’s the livin room. Nice an sunny durin the day. Kitchen’s got a hatchway to the attic near the cookin pot, but I'd advise ya to steer clear as there's a lotta shit in there last it got checked.”

He pointed into the kitchen, “Kitchens got a fireplace by the cookin pot, and wood jus’ outside there past the glass window. Ya can slide that open like a door to go out on the patio, go swimming in the ocean if it suits your fancy. Outhouse is just behind the firewood, so ya might wanna be careful if ya gotta go durin’ the night.”

He pointed a thumb behind him, indicating the hallway with the closed door, “Bathrooms over there, closest door to the kitchen. The other three doors are bedrooms. Jus’ in case ya get any a your friends from the boat visitin’. Nice and spacious enough for ya, I assume.”

He stopped his oral tour of the house and looked at her, pointedly indicating her armor by nodding his head at her symbol, “Ya can leave your armor in whichever room ya plan to sleep in once ya bring your bags in here. Daggerbay’s the safest place ‘round Tal’dorai, don’t even get attacked by sea creatures like ya would sailin.”

Pike grasped her symbol tightly for a moment, before she relaxed, knowing he didn’t mean anything by her being prepared, “Alright, if you're sure.”

“I am.” he said, leaning against the wall beside the open door.

“Um,” Pike looked around a second, before she stood up straighter, “oh! I don’t know your name yet.” She realized, “I’m Pike.”

He tilted his head, looking faintly like he might recognize the name, but doesn't ask, “I’m Chester. Nice meetin you, Pike.” he said, making Pike thankful. She didn’t want to think about her past adventures yet.

She nodded, “Likewise!” she chirped, walking past him a moment to pull her bags inside, leaving them to rest against the closest chair.

He stood up from the wall after she got everything in, warm smile on his face, “I'll let ya get situated then and be out of your hair now. There’s not much food around here, but there's a market in town. Standard fair, I’m sure I don't gotta explain it.” he turned around and walked halfway out of the door before he froze in his stride, staring forward.

Pike looked at his back worriedly, mouth open to ask if he was ok, before her ears perked up. She heard what sounded like singing, only she couldn’t make out any of the words clearly, if there even was words at all. She thought it sounded better than any music she had ever heard, it was mesmerizing. “Where’s that coming from?” she asked quietly, once she managed to shake the weird feeling that had started to settle over her thoughts.

The music was quieter now, somehow, it made her sad. She hoped whoever was doing it would get louder again later.

Chester turned back to her, his eyes oddly dulled, looking slightly exasperated as he shook himself out of whatever thought he had, “Just some local over east of the bay, tryin’ to trick visitin’ folk like you to thinkin this place is more interesting, or has more stuff, than it actually does.” he looked at her ruefully, hand rested against the doorframe, still half out of the cabin, “They do this every afternoon, over an hour I think. Nice an harmless, so most don't much care who's doin it. Pay you no mind though, it won’t bother ya much.” he said, leaving before she could ask anything else, door shut tight behind him.

Pike stared after him, unable to get the image of his eyes from her mind, dulled and seemingly aloof towards the best music she had ever heard. Acting like it wasn’t anything, like it wasn’t perfect. It was odd, and she wasn't sure how to feel about it, but she could probably check into it later.

Until then, she would get herself situated, listening to the song as it once more grew louder, letting it accompany her while she set up for the stay.

* * *

 

Pike didn’t really have a plan, but when the singing started again a few days later, she decided to go for a walk along the east side of the bay. She left her armor in her room, she trusted that she wouldn't actually need it, and just had some clothes appropriate for warm weather on, holy symbol hidden under her shirt.

It wasn't like she was avoiding anyone, not really, but she was careful where she walked. If Chester was any indication, most locals would probably think her interest was a waste of time. She knew something was going on, and she needed to figure it out without giving herself away.

A little after the singing had stopped while she had set up her room, she had felt weird, like she had just shed off a spell that had tried to affect her but failed to stick. She had to make sure it actually was just ‘harmless’ like everyone thought, otherwise it could end up like the children thing all over again.

Which was how she found herself on a walk three days after arriving, without her weapons or armor, walking towards where the singing came from, listening to it as it got louder the closer she came to where it was. In case it wasn’t safe and needed to be stopped.

She blinked, frozen in her tracks as she realized how terrible that plan actually was, and focused on blocking the singing from her ears so she could think clearly. It had been loud, like she was almost near it, making it difficult to block completely, but it was enough she could ignore it if she covered her ears.

Once she was sure her mind was clear from whatever the fuck she thought was a good idea, she realized she was on one of the cliffs. It wasn’t a cliff that had a beach near it, which was nice because it meant no one was watching her, but it did have water under it. She also realized that she had been walking up the cliff towards where the singing had been louder, instead of following the path around the base, like a sensible person.

She very quickly walked down from the cliff back to the path, circling around until she stumbled across what seemed to be a hidden cove, carefully hidden by the cliff she had just been on, that looked like it could have been separated from the rest of the ocean if not for the stream that came in between the otherwise rocky pathway that probably used to be a bridge path a long time ago.

The singing came from the middle of this small cove, from someone lying facing away from her on a large outcropping of rocks in the water, their long brown hair fanned out under them and falling off the sides of the rock. It wasn’t human, and it also wasn’t a gnome, even if it's upper body sort of looked like one to Pike. Below it's waist, hanging half off the rocks as the creature sang on, blissfully unaware of her presence, was a tail. A purple fish tail that was longer than the creatures upper body, that somehow made it more beautiful then if it were proportional.

Pike had never seen a mermaid before, while sailing on the Broken Howl, but she knew immediately that this was one of them. A male one, if the tenor crooning was anything to go by. She always imagined them having bodies proportioned to a human, since she never read of one that looked like a gnome, but. Mermaids were rare to see anyway, and things written about them were rare as well, so it couldn't be accurate that they all were generally the same. Either way, he was a bit too far away to pick out more details then that.

She didn’t know if that made sense, but at least she was reassured that it wasn’t a bad thing that was doing things to the bay. Just a merman in a hidden cove, singing for some reason. No reason to worry. She could turn back and ignore it, pretend she hadn’t seen him and return to her vacation. Everything was normal.

She shook her head, clearing the thoughts as she finally figured out the general carefree attitude of the locals about the music was because of him. It wasn’t harmful, she knew, but she still didn’t want anything messing with her thoughts. She knew what he wanted, but she didn't want to leave just yet. She wanted to listen to him up close, without the pretense of mystery she had cultivated for the last few days.

She carefully moved to get a better view of the left side of him and gingerly sat down near the edge of the water, legs crossed as she rested her elbows on them, holding her head in her hands, careful to be as silent as possible to not alert him while he sang

Half of his tail fin hung off the right of the rocks, hidden from her sights as it lazily flopped against the side every few seconds, following the beat of what he was singing. Half of his tail hung limply off the rocks he rested on when Pike finally shifted, boots scraping against the stone under her at the same time his singing had started to become quieter.

She held her breath, he opened his eyes. Both of them made eye contact for a brief moment before he yelped, startled. The movement overbalanced his already precarious position put upon him by his tails position, and he disappeared from her view over the far side of the rocks, pale purple tail fin the last to slip from Pikes view as she heard him splash into the water.

She breathed again and sat up, almost to her feet again when his head popped out of the water, hair wet and covering most of his face as he glared at her. The hostile growl he had started frozen in his throat as they both made eye contact again, before he looked closer at and around her while she kept frozen, watching his hostility change to confusion, bringing a hand out of the water to push his hair off part of his face as he studied her clothes and her hands. He made no other move, aggressive or otherwise, towards her then that.

Comforted for the moment she wasn't going to be attacked, she finished getting back up to her feet. The merman watched her movements wearily, half his face still covered by his long hair. This close, only a few feet away, she could see he had fins in place of where his ears would be, pointed at the top sort of similar to her own, and the same dark purple color as the scales of his tail.

“Hello,” Pike started gently, before his only visible eye widened in fright and he plunged back into the water, leaving her alone before she had even finished. The last sign she had even seen of him being his tail as he disappeared deeper into the water.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even on a break, Pike can't seem to catch one. Nor, it seems, can the merman she encountered.

Pike waited by the water after the merman had gone under, waiting to see if he would return or if she could catch a glimpse of any part of him that moved in the clear blue water, but after what felt like hours but she knew realistically had to be only a couple minutes, she finally gave up. The water was tranquil, it barely even rippled or seemed to boast signs of animal life beneath its depths. She could almost believe that the creature had never even been there in the first place.

She understood though that she might have overstepped and didn’t stay any longer, returning back to the little beach cabin for the night.

She didn’t stay away for long though.

Despite a want in her heart to respect him, her curiosity won over, and she spent her days sat at the edge of the rocky path, watching the motionless water for hours. A few times, she went wearing a bathing suit and swam out to the rocky outcropping in the middle of the cove where he had lain. She found a few purple scales, but at no point did she see any part of him at all. The air was equally silent of his music.

It was her fault, and she knew it was because she was greedy. She hadn’t even really considered his own privacy, more interested in seeing him instead of letting him be at peace the way she knew he had sung about the day she arrived.

It was unimaginably cruel and the thought that she might have caused him to run from his safe haven caused her no small amount of shame. It didn’t matter what she wanted if it meant stepping over what other people needed to feel secure.

Pike stopped going to the cove on the sixth day. She instead spent most of the day in the village, interacting with the residents and a few other visitors alike, introducing herself and extending friendly invitations to meet again. The scales she kept safe on a small table by her bed as a reminder of, if nothing else, that she did see him.

The singing didn’t return that afternoon.

A disappointment welled in her, but it was to be expected.

* * *

 Pike walked through the marketplace during first light the next day, among the many stalls and people selling their wares, stocking up on a week’s worth of food for her little beach home. At this early hour, the heat was not overly unpleasant and the ocean air provided a calm breeze that cooled her skin. As she meandered, her ponytail ruffled in the breeze, she considered going on the same supply run weekly.

She was one of only two others that milled about buying different wares, one being a dwarven woman who purchased some odd little bobbles before disappearing somewhere, and a human man she greeted the other day, some twenty feet away with a crossbow slung across his back, buying fresh fish from one of the fishermen set up at a stall in front of the boardwalk.

Maybe once she finished buying food, she could dig up a fishing pole, find a quiet place, and be mindless. If nothing else, it would provide a good distraction. From him. Though it had barely even been a day since her last visit to the cove, Pike’s thoughts always cycled back to the scales on her bedside table, to that place, to his voice, to him. She wondered where he was, worried about what he was doing, and if he was ok. She knew a little about merfolk from the Broken Howl, and she knew that they weren’t usually by themselves like this one had seemed to be.

In that way and so many others, he fascinated her. But - if she could distract herself...For example, with something fun and challenging like fishing, maybe it would help her mind forget. Maybe.

She paid for her things, quietly and with only a brief smile in the shopkeeper’s direction, before picking up her supply pack and hurrying for her beach house. Not even the ocean breeze tousling her hair nor the balmy early morning temperature could keep the truth at bay: her plan to forget was impossible.

She would never forget someone like that.

* * *

The books in the cottage covered a wide variety of topics, Pike found, when she decided to finally pull one out to read in the afternoon. She hadn’t been too worried that the books would all revolve around what Daggerbay could boast of itself, but it was nice to have the option of reading more than just about the ocean and the fish in them. 

She pulled out half a shelf’s worth of books - it felt like a good place to start - and piled them on the floor before joining them. Grabbing the first book from the pile, a fishing guide for beginners, she thumbed through it for a few minutes. Just as soon, she snapped it shut and set it off to the side, a new pile. She continued like this for a while, grabbing the next book and restlessly thumbing through to check its contents before placing it with the others, one after another, on the ever growing reject pile until her beginning pile was gone. A good hour must have passed, or at least it felt like it must have, but she didn't retain anything of what she read. It hardly mattered, she decided as she stared dejectedly at the pile, so long as she had something in her hands.

After a sigh and a shrug, she pushed the books back onto the shelves and sat down in the chair. Her leg shook as she looked around the room, whistling a sailor's tune, before she got back up and inspected the book shelf once more.

The guide to fishing was what she settled on eventually, because even if the idea might not work, fishing was still something she thought sounded like fun and the book hadn’t read too terribly. She even found a working fishing rod lying around in one of the rooms! She could read what she had to do while putting it in practice right away!

It wasn’t boring at all!

Her excitement lasted all of five minutes.

Messing around with a fishing rod wasn’t really helping, but she followed along with what the book said anyway. She strung up the rod and picked the nicest looking hook she could find to attach to the end of the string with the utmost of care. Focused completely on making sure it would function.

Something shrieked, the string snapping the same moment as her concentration when the hook dug into her hand on the rods fall to the floor as she covered her ears.

She was out the cottage door before her mind caught up with her, telling her she didn’t know where it came from or what direction it had been in. It had been a loud enough shriek it could have come from anywhere.

There couldn’t have been anyone else in distress though, and she hoped her assumption was right. She took off in the direction of the hidden cove, hoping that whatever had happened, it wasn’t too late to fix.

* * *

 

She passed no one on her run for the cove, adrenaline pounding in her ears and her hand pulsing in pain, and for that she was grateful. She wouldn’t be able to explain herself if she _had_ run into anyone else.

The dirt underfoot progressively changed to smooth rocks as she entered the cove. She stopped abruptly, gasping in surprise at what she saw. The once calm water churned angrily, and she caught sight of multiple bodies splashing against the surface.

She knew enough to recognize a fight and the scaled tail of the merman, saw enough to know that he was fighting for his life. She glanced away from the water for just a moment, long enough to see a crossbow and a few bolts scattered on the rocks, to realize with a chill that she’d seen a slight pink tint to the water, to recognize the thrashing form of a human man as he fought against a drowning by the very same creature he had attacked first.

By the time Pike turned back to the water, the man stopped struggling. The only ripples remaining were caused by the merman as as he struggled to keep his head above the water, breath ragged and eyes wild. It did not take him long, as alert as he was, to notice he still wasn’t alone after pushing the man through the small creek that connected his small cove to the ocean.

He stilled, staring at Pike and seemingly injured enough from whatever the man had done to him that he used his hands, webbed between each finger and clawed, to stay above water. Pike was used to this type of violence, had to be, so his attention on her didn’t make her flinch away in fear.

All she could see of him was his face and arms, scratched up, with one eye badly bruised, but she knew he had to be hurt more. He had to be, if swimming was a struggle. The man had to have gotten him at least once with the crossbow before he had been pulled into the water.

But, it would seem the fight wasn’t the only thing that weighed on him. Dark imprints hung under each of his eyes, like many sleepless nights had haunted him. Probably since her visit last week.

He stared at her, finned ears pressed flat against his head, looking for all the world like he’d drown Pike too if given reason. Whether or not he’d survive that fight was not a thought he seemed to consider.

Then, his ears and eyelids drooped. His hands treaded the water slower and slower as it diluted further from blood. Before Pike could even shout for him to _wait_ , he sank down into the water completely. She could see his outline through the tinted liquid, struggling to swim down with whatever terrible injuries he had sustained, and resolved that wouldn’t do at all.

She grabbed the crossbow and threw it away into the tall grass. The human’s body was an issue she could handle later. Probably.

A water breathing potion had been left back at the cottage, found during her little jaunt at the market, but time was of the essence. She didn’t know how bad his wounds were, but certainly bad enough to warrant some reckless abandon and a test of her watery limits.

Pike jumped into the water, holding her breath and hoping she would get to him before she ran out of air herself. She swam down deeper in the water, looking for where he could have gone. Her eyes caught on a small, uneven cave opening in the rocks, just big enough for something a slightly bigger than her to swim through. It looked slightly unstable to her eyes, but the water around it was still a bit discolored, so she knew the merman had to have gone through it.

Swimming through it herself, however, was fucking terrible. She had to crawl through as much as swim. There wasn’t much space between different shaped rocks in the tunnel, not to mention the purple scales that glittered at her touch.

Thus, once she swam out of the tunnel into open water, she appreciated what little freedom she found there. She also found herself surrounded by walls of more underwater rocks in the shape of a bowl, and that little freedom escaped. Her lungs were on fire. She needed air.

She swam up, hoping for an air pocket, and breathed in deeply when she breached the top of the water into what looked to be an underwater cave. The ceiling of the cave was littered with stalactites, covered in bio-luminescent algae that made the dark cave lit softly in green lights. A quick sweep of the area revealed an elevated outcropping a few inches above the water level along one side of the semi rectangular cave, where the merman curled tightly around himself as far from the water as he could, leaning heavily against a stalagmite, crowded against the wall.

He bristled when he saw her, fins flaring while the frill along his back flattened. He remained otherwise motionless and boneless, shadowed eyes half lidded as the blood flowed steadily from multiple large wounds in his tail, face paler than she knew was good.

Swimming closer to the raised part of the cave allowed her to see the broken bits of crossbow bolts littered near him, a few small bits snapped off and stuck in his scales. The worst part, besides the fact she knew he had to have pulled them out himself and aggravated the injuries, was that one of the bolts or resulting fight had completely shredded the webbing of the tail fin. No wonder swimming to the cave had been such a struggle for him.

She knew that wouldn't heal without magic. None of his wounds would heal fast enough without magic, but the moment she climbed up onto the relatively dry rocks and tried to get close, he growled at her. It sounded like it was meant to be threatening, but the hostile heat only lasted seconds before it became pained whining.

She held out her hands, smiling gently, “I’m sorry for scaring you and following you here. It's a very pretty place. I promise I’m not here to hurt you, it's just...you’re really hurt and I don't think what happened was fair to you.”

He looked at her, or at least her hands, which was good enough for her to continue, “Can you understand me? You've lost a lot of blood and I know you're probably scared, but I promise I only want to heal you,” she said gently, inching closer on her knees, arms still held out, until she was near enough to him to touch his shoulder if she wanted.

Looking at him, his eyes focused the closer she came to him. She watched them as they looked from her face to her hands, confusion written in his expression making her believe he hadn't understood.

She went to speak, assure him again, but he grabbed her hand, startling her. His claws barely touched her skin. She felt only the smoothed softness of his own hand, looking at her open palm, head tilted wonderingly. His head dropped back to rest against the rock, finished with his impromptu inspection after a couple seconds, letting go of her hand as he huffed a sigh and nodded. He shut his eyes and slowly uncurled his tail away from himself, relaxing as much as she believed he was able to, under the circumstances.

Pike blinked and looked down at her own hand. Blood trickled slowly from a small cut. Oh - she hadn't even noticed the hook had hurt her. She’d been too shocked and focused on him to give any thought to herself.

The cut stung, but she was happy. He looked ready to accept her help now, after she’d proved she was willing to ignore her own injuries to help him. She thought that was a bit of a weird thing to trust a person on, but she wasn’t going to judge.

She was more excited about seeing him again, (up close this time!), to really care. He was tolerating her being near to heal him though, and she didn’t think for much else. So, curbing her excitement, she gently brushed away the shards stuck in the scales once he finished laying himself out for her to see everything. It earned her a few whimpers and twitches, but he didn’t move or look at her otherwise.

Gently placing her uninjured hand on his elbow and her other on her symbol, she summoned her healing magic and watched the yellow glow go down her arm and into him. The glow traveled and sparked brighter at his wounds as the magic worked, stitching them back together, magic replacing any skin or scale lost and regenerating the blood in the body’s system. The merman let out a relieved hum as the pain pulled away.

She watched the magic as it went, sight locked on the end of his tail as it glowed brightly, the shredded bits of webbing knitting back together. The healing magic slowly faded as the final bits of translucence purple tissue finished joining together, leaving her to blink in the sudden darkness, with only the algae’s dim light to see from.

Smiling happily, pleased that her spell looked to have healed him completely, she used a small healing spell on her own injury before she turned her attention back to his face when he shifted slightly.

His eyes were still closed, body completely relaxed as he found a more comfortable position to lie against the stone, head rested on one hand as the frill on his back retracted flat against the skin. His ears twitched when she shuffled closer, but otherwise didn't show any sign he might be awake.

He looked cute like that, Pike thought. She wasn't as surprised as she thought she would be that he was sleeping. He'd been really hurt, and sometimes healing took a lot out of a person anyway. He deserved a good rest, she decided. Especially after almost dying.

She wasn't entirely sure if sleeping against a hard algae covered rock coming out of the ground was comfortable though. Even if he might be used to it, sleeping without the proper gear had always been a pain.

Well, it wasn't like he was going to be able to run away to some other, more secret than an underwater cave, place. And, she wasn’t going to leave him alone after a fight like that. She could give him more comfort than a rock, she was sure of that.

Moving as gently as she could in case she woke him, she pushed him up off the rock and quickly maneuvered herself into a sitting position behind him, resting her own back against the stalactites, frankly kind of disgusting, algae and slime rock face. She brushed his wet hair out from behind him to rest over his shoulder, not wanting hair to get in her mouth as she laid his head against her shoulder. Miraculously, somehow, she managed to move him to lean his own back against her instead of his face lying directly on her shoulder.

That would be a little weird for multiple reasons Pike didn’t really want to think about.

She had wanted to talk to him, ask what his name was and introduce herself. Say sorry for her previous selfishness and forcing him to hide in the first place without the proper sleep he needed, but that could wait. He needed the rest more than she wanted to properly meet him. She’d stay with him, like a good cleric would for their party, just in case she had missed something while healing him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now with wonderful edits from Tameila!


End file.
